


The Strength of Iron and Bronze

by Mariico



Category: Infernal Devices - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-26
Updated: 2013-03-26
Packaged: 2017-12-06 12:56:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/735956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mariico/pseuds/Mariico
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This love story, Tessa realized, was not about her at all. It was about two boys who lived for each other. Two parabatai. And if she did say so herself, it was a pretty incredible tale.  Co-written with the ticking clock .  **contains Clockwork Princess Spoilers**</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Strength of Iron and Bronze

**Author's Note:**

> Title: The Strength of Iron and Bronze  
> Summary: This love story, Tessa realized, was not about her at all. It was about two boys who lived for each other. Two parabatai. And if she did say so herself, it was a pretty incredible tale. Co-written with the ticking clock . **contains Clockwork Princess Spoilers**   
> Rating: T  
> Characters: Tessa Gray, Will Herondale, James Carstairs, Magnus Bane  
> Disclaimer: All recognizable quotes belong to Cassandra Clare, as well as the characters and the storyline.  
> Author’s Note: Written by Mariico and the ticking clock.

_  
“When two people are at one in their inmost hearts, they shatter even the strength of iron or bronze.” ~Cassandra Clare_

_Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ_

Magnus had once said to her, so many years ago, ‘ _The first one is always the hardest._ ’

Tessa disagreed. The second one was just as worse.

Jem was dead. This time, there was no Silent Brotherhood who could save him. He was truly dead. He had grown old, just like Will had, and he had died in her arms. It was a peaceful death, one she had always hoped for for both him and Will.

Jem and Will. They were one soul split into two bodies. And now they were finally reunited, forever together in a place Tessa could never reach.

Tessa couldn’t help but feel jealous. Over the years of Will’s love and Jem’s selflessness, they hadn’t been able to grant her one wish: she wanted to go with them. Instead, she was forever stuck on this planet, everything she lived for disappearing right in front of her eyes.

She remembered that first day when she had been brought to the Institute as if it were yesterday, although the actual day had been nearly two centuries ago. She could see Charlotte with her motherly affection, welcoming into the Institute with open arms. And Henry, his love for gadgets and inventions, always tinkering around with everything that could be tinkered around with.

Charlotte. Henry. Sophie. Agatha. Thomas. Jessamine. Jem. Will. The original crew at the Institute. How long ago it was that she had first stepped foot in London, chasing after her brother, when she had met the eight of them. Even after Agatha and Thomas had gone, and were replaced by Bridget and Cyril, she never really took a moment to think of how fast her world was changing.

Now, she had nothing _but_ time to think about her past.

She had not witnessed Jessamine’s death, but Will had told her of how she was bloody and broken at the very end. Even though Jessamine had betrayed all of them, she did not wish that fate on anyone.

The two of them were polar opposites, she supposed. Jessamine had died by herself. And now she, Tessa, had to live by herself.

Gideon had been the first one to die. She had become very good friends with him over the years, and heard countless stories about him from Sophie. Sophie had been devastated when he died. She often locked herself in her room, refusing to come out. Tessa could hear her screaming for her husband during the nights, and it seemed that nothing she did could comfort her.

She had never imagined that it would happen to her.

She herself had wanted to die when Will had passed away. She knew that he would not have wanted anything different with his death; he had died in both her and Jem’s arms. He had been happy in those final moments; she had seen it in his blue eyes.

She had fled after that. Her children were grown and they had their own children. They didn’t need her anymore; the grandmother who would never grow old. She travelled around the world, saw the sights she had always wanted to see.

Except she was all alone.

She did not know why anyone would _ever_ want to be an immortal being. One lifetime was simply enough. She had accomplished everything she had ever wanted to. Immortality was not a prize to be won. It was a punishment, a cruel punishment that would last with her for the rest of eternity. It trapped her, chained her to this planet when she wanted nothing more but to be free.

She found herself on Blackfriars Bridge once again. No matter where she went in the world, how far she travelled, hoping to lose herself, she found herself always straying back to the bridge no matter what. The bridge was her only companion these days. Magnus suffered the curse of immortality as well, but he was much more experienced than she. By now, he had to be tired of her incessant tears. She didn’t want to bother him any longer.

It was he who told her to come back this year. Truthfully, she had planned not to. There was no point. There was no one there to meet her anymore. She had selfishly wished that Jem had stayed a Silent Brother so she could see him once every year. It was not much, but it was more than she had now. Will had left her so many years ago, but Jem could stay. They could spend eternity together.

_Will? Will, is that you?_

_Jem? Is it you, James?_

Then she realized she could not ask of that from him.   _I cannot sever them, one from the other. I cannot be responsible for such a thing._ The two belonged together; not even death could part them.

_Jem is all I have._

_You are worth everything, Will._

* * *

“Tessa?”

She looked, up, quickly, startled. “Magnus?”

The corners of his mouth twitched up, almost a smile. “Hello, darling.”

There was nothing flirtatious in the way Magnus said those words. Only a gentle, almost paternal concern. One could hardly mistake Magnus for a father though. Leaning lazily against the railing of the bridge, his dark hair windswept, his clothes tight and modern, he didn’t look a day over nineteen, or perhaps twenty.

She sighed, loudly and walked over to him, bridging the invisible gap between them. He did not move as she approached, only watched her with unreadable gold-green eyes. Reaching him, she leaned against the bridge railing and crossed her arms over her chest. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m not allowed to visit?” Magnus was not looking at her. He was staring at the people milling about, walking dogs, looking out over the water. “Watching humanity...never gets old, does it?”

Tessa tilted her head back, mentally counting to ten. She was not in the mood for Magnus’s banter or mind games. “Why are you _really_ here, Magnus?”

The warlock sighed. Tessa could hear his own weariness in the gesture, and when she turned to look at him, he was watching her. This time there was no teasing in his eyes, no playful smirk she’d come to associate with him. He looked old. Old, and tired. “I worry about you, Tessa. We have not spoken in months, years. I know that life can be-”

“Don’t you _dare_ say hard, Magnus Bane,” She snapped. Suddenly furious, she spun away from him. Her hands found the cool stone of the bridge’s railing and she gripped it, hard, dug her fingernails into it until her hands ached. “I _know_ how hard life is. I have lived it. Everyone I know, everyone I ever cared about is _dead,_ Magnus.”

She felt him move closer to her. He was by her shoulder now, close enough to touch, but not daring to. “Even Jem,” he said, very gently.

Tessa exhaled in a gust, hanging her head, looking down, far down, into the water below them. “Yes,” she said, hearing the bitter note in her voice, the ache, and not caring. “Yes. Even Jem.”

“Why didn’t you come to me?” Magnus asked, still with that horrible gentleness. “I could have helped you-”

“No,” she whispered, but with such force that Magnus drew in a breath. “No, you couldn’t have. You told me the first death is always the hardest, but it _wasn’t._ Jem’s death was no easier to bear than Will’s was. I would wake screaming in the night, I wanted to die, Magnus. And I couldn’t burden you with that.” The last words she directed over her shoulder at him.

He was staring at her, cat eyes wide, lips slightly parted as if in surprise. Shaking his head, he ran a hand across his face, as if grieved, as if her words pained him. “Oh Tessa, Tessa...what has the world done to you?”

* * *

Sophie had been the next to die, twenty years after the death of her husband. Charlotte followed soon after. And then Henry. Then Gabriel. Cecily. She had not personally been with them when they died, and that fact haunted her every day. Magnus had contacted her after Sophie’s death, yet even then she did not return. Now, she wished she could rewind the clock if only just for a second, to speak with them one last time.

One by one, her friends and her family died. And little by little, her heart began to crack into millions of pieces. Pieces that had not and would not ever heal.

After all, her story didn’t have a happy ending, because there was no ending in sight. She would live on this planet forever, watching generations come and go. The world had already changed so much in the centuries; she had no interest in staying on this planet until the very end.

One day, when the world ended, would she still be stuck in this prison? Would she wander around alone, still her teenage self, until she was nothing more than ashes? Even then, would she finally be allowed to leave? There were so many questions she wanted the answer to, but only time had the answers.

She didn’t even recognize this world any longer. She had not taken the effort to immerse herself in the new technology and gadgets that were becoming more and more popular. She lived in the twenty first century, but her mind was still stuck in the nineteenth. She still wore her 1800 Victorian dresses. None of the new fashion trends interested her. She could almost hear Will making fun of them, could almost see Jem trying to be polite, but grinning nonetheless.

The thought of them made her cry.

* * *

“The world?” Tessa managed a choked laugh and wiped the tears from her eyes, quickly, before Magnus could mention them. She did not want him to see her cry, not now. “The world has broken me, Magnus.”

He moved, so they were looking in the same direction-down at the rushing water below. “I knew a boy who said something similar to me once...”

Tessa shook her head. She did not think she could handle one of Magnus’s lectures now, not in this place, not so close to the institute where her whole life had been changed, nearly one-hundred and fifty years ago...”Magnus, please-”

Magnus acted as if she hadn’t spoken, the only sign that he had heard her was the slight raise in his voice. “He was broken and shattered and a mess on my doorstep, and do you know what I did? I helped him. I helped him even though I shouldn’t have...I helped him and tried to fix him. But you did that, Tessa Gray, Tessa _Herondale_. You gave him meaning and purpose and love when his _parabatai_ was gone. And now I’m looking at you, you strong, wonderful girl, and I see the situtations reversed. Do I have to pick you up and save you? Because something tells me that you don’t need my help, or want my help right now. You’re Tessa. Your strong and fearless and smart. You haven’t stopped reading books, have you? The world hasn’t broken you, Tes-”

“ _Don’t_ ,” she tried to say firmly, but even she could hear the slight tremor in her voice, “call me Tess.”

He sighed. “I know that their deaths have hurt you, Tessa. I know that you want to be alone and you want to curl up and die from the pain of it. And I will offer you the same advice I gave Will when he sat by Jem’s bedside agonizing over whether he should leave his _parabatai_ and go after you. ‘ _There is no great secret. You endure what is unbearable, and you bear it. That is all.’”_

Tessa pressed a hand to her eyes, breathing deeply. “What are you trying to say?”

“I’m trying to say that I understand. I’m trying to say that I can help you, if you wish me to. I’m saying I’m sorry. I’m saying I’m just as broken as you are and I like broken things.”

She did not think she’d ever seen such vulnerability from him, not like this. Even when she’d lived with him in Paris and he had been the one holding her in the night while she screamed for Will. Even when she’d been unable to bear it anymore and had left him alone, when she could see he enjoyed her company.

She recognized his gesture, saw that he was trying to help her. But she really didn’t want his help...this was something between her and the two boys she’d loved. The only boys she’d ever love. She needed to deal with this in her own way, in her own time.

That didn’t mean she couldn’t be his friend though. She had so few friends left, and Magnus Bane was a good one to have.

Slowly, she turned to look at him. “You’re right,” She said, clearing her throat when the words got caught on her tongue, when they came out choked and jumbled, “I don’t really want your help...but I think I need you to be my friend. I’m not broken,” she managed a small smile and poked him in the chest. “And you, Magnus Bane, are far more broken than me.”

His lips curled up into that teasing smile she’d come to know over the years. “Am I?”

“You know you are,” she turned her back on the water and moving so they were side by side, leaning against each other.

“So,” he said, looking down at her. “since we’ve sorted out that we are going to be friends and that you are a strong woman etc, do you want to talk about it?”

She met his gaze. “What? Talk about _what?_ Will? Jem?”

Magnus reached out and caught a stray tear as it fell down her cheek. “Why don’t we talk about both?” he asked gently.

* * *

Will had been devastated after Jem had been turned into a Silent Brother. She had tried her best to comfort him when they were alone, and she had sent Gabriel and Gideon with him to try to keep his mind off of Jem.

The first hunt was the hardest.

He had to be carried back by Gideon. He was a mess, a puddle of sobs. He had cried for days because he had turned around, ready to share an inappropriate joke about demons, only to find Gideon standing there instead of Jem.

His parabatai was gone. That fact broke him.

Will had recovered slowly after that, and she had been there for him the whole time. She already loved him as much as a person _could_ love another, but she was surprised to feel herself falling in love with him all over again during those months when he was recovering. His pain and his love for Jem was so raw and real that she could almost _see_ Jem in him.

It had always been that way. Will owned a part of Jem, and Jem owned a part of Will.

Will never really recovered, though no one had expected him to. He had started whining at every little injury, every scrap that he got. It was no secret to anyone why he was doing so. He started getting in fights more and more often, to try and see Jem, if only for a few moments.

“ _I have a paper cut,_ ” he had once said. “ _Dear me, massive blood loss. Death could be imminent. Someone call Jem.”_

After a few failed attempts, Jem had finally come. The whole meeting had lasted for barely an hour, yet it healed Will in a way that no one else could.

“ _I think there is hope for you yet, Will Herondale.”_

That was the last time Will heard Jem’s voice.

They still met whenever they could. If there was a loophole in the law or an opportunity presented itself, they would quickly see each other and savor the time they had left. Tessa never interrupted their meetings; after all, it was a time set especially for them, and no one else. Just like how Will never interrupted her annual meetings with Jem, though he certainly knew about them. He knew, just as well as she did, that these meetings were special, a special something shared between two individuals.

The three of them had never really ever been together again since Jem had changed. Of course they fought alongside one another once in awhile, but Jem disappeared back to the Silent City right after the battle had finished. In fact, the only time Tessa could remember the three of them together, like they had once been, was the time of Will’s death.

_I take your hand, brother, so that you may go in peace._

* * *

She was crying, then.

Magnus was watching her and she was surprised to see tears on his cheeks. She hadn’t thought that this story, one he had heard countless times, probably, would have this effect on him.

“You were together at his death though, weren’t you?” He said, softly.

Tessa nodded. “Of course we were...and you know that story.” Taking a deep breath, she wiped at her eyes. “That isn’t what keeps me up at night.”

Magnus’s hand came down on her shoulder, gentle, firm. She looked up at him.

“Then what does, Tessa?” He whispered.

* * *

The day before Will died, the two of them had been in a room together. His head had been propped up with pillows, and she was curled by his side. She had been crying, she remembered, crying about the inevitability of the things to come.

“ _Don’t cry, My Tess,”_ he had whispered in her ear. “ _I’ve lived a long, noble life with you. I have beautiful children that I love. There is nothing more that I could wish for.”_

“ _Nothing?_ ” she had whispered back in between sobs. To others, the sight might have been strange; the dying, old man was the one who was calm, while the girl who looked young enough to be his granddaughter was crying heavily into his shoulder.

But of course, it was only Tessa and Will.

Will was quiet for a moment, and then he said, “ _The one thing I would have changed about my life would have been to have more James Carstairs in it.”_

* * *

As she whispered Will’s last words to him, the tears ached in her throat and she found she couldn’t go on. Spinning away she ducked her head and buried her face in her hands, willing herself to regain control. It had been years, it had been years-

And then Magnus’s arms were around her.

He’d come up behind her and embraced her, rested his chin on top of her head and pulled her close to him.

For a moment she tensed. She considered pushing him away, saying she was fine. But-

“Tessa...” Magnus breathed in her ear, very gentle.

The warmth of his embrace overruled her pride, and she twisted so her head was against his chest and buried her face in his shirt, sobbing.

If any passerby found anything odd about two teenagers standing on the bridge they did not comment or stop to ask if they were alright. Tessa was grateful for that. She’d gotten stopped by passerby before on this bridge and had almost punched a man in the face. (But that was a whole other story)

Magnus rubbed her back soothingly, whispering phrases in Indonesian, his native language, that meant nothing to her. She had learned years ago that the habit comforted him just as much as the sound of his soothing words comforted her.

“Who’s this, Magnus?”

The voice was familiar to her, somehow. Turning, she disentangled herself from Magnus’s embrace.

Her eyes were still blurred with tears, but they sought and fastened on a pair of brilliant blue eyes.

“W-will?”

“Oh no,” Magnus muttered from above her. His hands wrapped around her wrists, as if he was restraining her. Maybe he was. “No, no, Tessa.”

“Will?” The man stepped forward, tilting his head to one side. He was old. He looked

exactly like Will had when he was old. Grey hair, still long and curling around his ears. Lined face, but still with that youthful curl to his smile. And his eyes...blue and clear, as vibrant as a child’s. “I’m Alec.”

When he spoke, Tessa could hear the difference. Alec did not have Will’s rolling Welsh accent that he had never quite lost. His voice was a little rougher on the edges, but with a lilt to it that suggested he was British. A native of Idris, perhaps?

Embarrassed, Tessa ducked her head in greeting, taking a step back, bumping into Magnus. His grip tightened on her wrists. “My apologies, Alec,” she said. “You-you remind me of someone.” She flicked a finger against Magnus’s arm, and he released her.

“Will Herondale?” There was a strange curl to Alec’s mouth as he said the name. “I’ve heard that before.”

Magnus cleared his throat behind her. “Tessa, this is my husband, Alexander Lightwood.”

Lightwood. That would explain the resemblance to Will. Herondale genetics apparently lasted longer than a few generations.

_Husband._

Tessa turned to Magnus with a smile. “So. You finally found love again, Magnus Bane?”

The warlock smirked at her question and pulled Alec, who had come up beside him, closer to his side. They were a strange pair, Tessa thought. The old man and the young one who could have been his son. But that was how it had been with her and Will, with her and Jem.

* * *

Jem’s death had been as fairytale-like as Will’s had been. It was just the two of them one cool, fall afternoon. He had glanced at her and gave her his rueful smile, the smile she had loved from the first time that she had seen it.

The two of them had no children together, but that did nothing to diminish their happiness. They travelled around the world together, and Tessa found out quickly how enjoyable it was to have someone to share the joy of travelling with. She had flown everywhere, from Paris to San Diego, from one continent to the next. He continued to believe he was terrible with words, so he composed numerous musical compositions for both her and Will, of the things they had lost and of a promise of the things to come.

They say you cannot love two people equally at once. And perhaps for others that is so. But for Tessa, that had never been the case. Perhaps it was because she had never looked at Jem and _not_ seen Will, and the other way around.

Seeing Jem again, travelling around the world with him, not only renewed her love for him, but also her love for Will. Her time with Jem had slowly healed her pain of Will’s death.

But she knew, as she did the day she found out that she was immortal, that it would all come to an end.

_Most people are lucky to have even one great love in their life. You have found two._

But was it worth it, to have a lifetime of happiness only to live eternally in sadness?

* * *

She hadn’t realized that she’d whispered the last thought out loud until Magnus touched her shoulder. “That depends, Tessa.”

“On?” She was not looking at him. Looking at him and Alec was making her throat feel tight and her heart ache.

“You were happy with both Will and Jem. You had two lifetimes of joy with them. That is more than most people have...now you are alone. But you have your memories, your thoughts. You can still remember them and remember that happiness.”

“That does not answer the question. _Was it worth it?_ ”

Magnus shrugged. “What do you think? If you could go back and change everything, change the fact that you ever met them, that you ever fell in love with them, change your whole life just to avoid this sadness, would you?”

Tessa thought of Will, his head bent over a book. She thought of his terrible poetry and his songs. She thought of his teasing and his laughter, the smell of him, the feel of him in her arms. She thought of Jem, the silvery sound of his violin music, the tremble in his hands when he’d offered her his mother’s necklace. She thought of their yearly meeting on this bridge. She thought of how they’d traveled the world, how he’d taught her Mandarin and played her the violin every night before she went to sleep.

“No,” she said, quietly, firmly. She was certain of her answer. She wouldn’t change it for the world.

Magnus smiled. “There. See? I think that means it was worth it, Tessa Herondale.”

“Herondale?” Alec asked. It was the first he’d spoken since Tessa had started talking, and his voice startled her. “Did you-”

“Will Herondale was my husband.”

“Your husband? You’re a warlock?”

Tessa smiled. “Of sorts.”

There must have been something in her expression, because Magnus looked sideways, away from her.

“We were just going to go to Hyde Park to feed the ducks,” Alec said, tugging at Magnus’s arm until the warlock looked at him and smiled. “Would you like to come?”

Oh God.

_Ducks._

Tessa wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or cry. In her head she could picture a young Will and Jem sitting in the library of the institute, side by side, swinging their legs like school boys.

_‘Remember when you tried to convince me to feed a poultry pie to the mallards in the park to see if you could breed a race of cannibal ducks?’_

_‘They ate it too. Bloodthirsty little beasts. Never trust a duck.’_

Tessa swallowed hard. “I’d love to come,” she said and let out a sound that was half a laugh and half a sob. “I absolutely love ducks.”

* * *

_Will had always been the brighter burning star, the one to catch attention--but Jem is a steady flame, unwavering and honest._

It was through them that she learned how to love, how to cry, how to _live_. It was through them that she experienced her first heartbreak, her first kiss, her first love. For it did not matter how long your life was, but who you spent it with.

_You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, but you do have some say in who hurts you._

* * *

In the end, Magnus and Alec were the ones who needed to leave.

“We do have a meeting,” Alec reminded Magnus, gently, elbowing him in the ribs, in a way that Tessa could not help but be reminded of Jem and Will.

Magnus looked sideways at her, a question in his eyes.

“Go,” she said, giving him a reassuring smile. “Have fun. Throw a party. Do what you do.”

He smiled at her. “Your wish is my command, my lady.”

“It was very nice to meet you, Tessa.” Alec said, leaning around Magnus’s arm to smile at her. She could see why Magnus loved him in that smile. He was so human: light and love and shattered imperfection.

“It was nice to meet you as well, Alec Lightwood.” She did not say that there was a chance they would never meet again, that his life was short and mortal and winding down. She looked at Magnus and saw in his expression that he had picked up on her thoughts. He shook his head.

Recognizing his wishes, she bit her lip and said, “I hope to see you again.”

Alec blue eyes met hers. Their gazes held. She saw that he understood her unspoken thoughts, and appreciated them. They did not upset him as they upset Magnus. He’d accepted them. “So do I, Tessa.”

Magnus whispered something in Alec’s ear that Tessa could not make out. It made Alec smile.

Her heart ached.

The warlock turned from his husband and walked over to her. “Don’t be a stranger, Tessa.”

She looked up at him. When everything seemed to vanish and fade from her in this world, Magnus would be one of the few remaining constants in her life. He, like her, was chained to life by the golden chain of immortality. “I can’t promise you that,” she said very quietly. “For at least a decade.”

“Oh Tessa...” His hand slipped under her chin, tilted it up. “Grief does not suit you, darling. But I can respect your wishes and stay away for ten years if you wish.”

She smiled at him. “Go to your party, Magnus.”

His eyes narrowed, and she knew her conscious decision not to mention when she would see him again had not gone unnoticed. But they had forever, she reminded herself. She would see him again.

“Have a good life,” he said, and pulled her into his arms.

She hugged him back, buried her head in his chest and breathed him in. He smelled like sandalwood and Paris and the rain of London.

“You too,” she whispered.

They pulled apart. Magnus tipped his head to her, dropped a glittery wink that made her laugh, and put an arm around Alec’s waist.

Alec, though, twisted to call over his shoulder, “We never said we were going to a party!”

Tessa smiled. “Where are you going then?”

It was Magnus who replied, “Meeting with Alec’s _parabatai_ -”

He cut the word short, and she saw the color drain from his face. He knew what meaning that word held for her.

_Parabatai._

It ached in her throat. She could not think that word without thinking of Will and Jem, perfect halves of a whole. One soul in two bodies. Closer than brothers.

“Oh,” she managed.

Magnus and Alec had stopped walking and were looking at her: Alec, curious, Magnus, concerned.

“You have a _parabatai._ ” The word came out strained, and she saw Alec’s eyebrows go up at it, but forged on. “What’s his name?”

Alec’s blue eyes met hers. “Jace Herondale.”

Tessa staggered, reaching out to steady herself on a nearby tree. Through blurry eyes she saw Magnus leading Alec away, their heads bent close together.

_Herondale._

Oh, Will.

This was ridiculous, she knew. It had been years since Will’s death. _Years._ It had been Jem who had helped when she’d had these odd emotional attacks, and Magnus before him. Will had been gone for years.

So why did even the simple name, _Herondale_ bring her to her knees?

Sighing, she pressed her fists to her eyes. This was her life. Her tangled mess of a love story. She remembered how she and Will had often talked of _A Tale of Two Cities._ How he’d often fancied himself as Sydney Carton, and how Magnus had scolded him for it.

_You’re not Sydney Carton, Will._

And, just like in their favorite books, their ever-continuing love story(because it did continue, as long as she was alive it would continue) would end tragically, because she was alone.

Their time with her was over, but their love story wouldn’t end...

She laughed at the absurdity and the poeticness of that thought.

‘ _You and me, we live and breathe words.’_

She clenched her eyes shut, and pulled them to mind. Not old, as they had been when she’d last seen them, but young. Young as they’d been when she’d been a girl, standing on this very bridge.

Dark hair, bright blue eyes, flushed cheeks and a playful scowl, head bent deep in the pages of a book, was Will, in her mind’s eyes. She saw Jem, chin resting on his violin, silver hair shining in the moonlight, the complete opposites of his _parabatai._

But maybe that was what it meant to be _parabatai,_ she thought. To be two separate halves, to be opposites that fit together perfectly.

* * *

_Will? Will, is that you?_

_Jem? Is it you, James?_

This was not her love story, she realized. In fact, it was not even her story at all. It was the tale of two parabatai who would have sacrificed anything for each other. Two parabatai who loved each other so much that they lived for each other and fed off each other’s happiness. Two parabatai who taught the world a whole new definition of love. Whose bond had conquered even over death. Two parabatai that finally found peace together.

And this was where their story ended.

She could see a mixture of blue and grey, swirled together such that it was impossible to tell where one started and the other one ended. She could see them turn to smile at her then, a smile of love, a smile of adoration.

A smile of a memory, of the way things once were. A smile that meant _I love you. Be happy. Everything’s okay._

_T_ essa smiled back and opened her eyes. _I love you too._

Around her, modern day London continued to flourish and move. People talked, cars and buses blew by her. Tilting her head back, she sighed, long and deep. In the end, it did not matter that she’d married Will and not Jem. It did not matter that she’d done the impossible and loved them both. This was her life, and this was their story.

_Jem and Will—they were not like two ordinary people. They merged their souls when they were both children. She could not have loved Will so much if she had not loved Jem as well. And she could not have loved Jem as she did if she had not loved Will as she did._

And if she did say so herself, it was a pretty incredible tale.  

_Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ_

**.END.**

 


End file.
